Iraq director Ahmed Yassin Al Daradji’s Hanging Gardens has been named best film at the 7th Critics Awards for Arab Films, which will celebrate its winners in Cannes today.
Al Daradji’s directorial feature debut premiered at Venice and went on to win best film at the Red Sea International Film Festival in December. The film follows a 12-year-old boy living as a rubbish picker in the dumps of Baghdad, nicknamed the ‘hanging gardens’, who finds a discarded US sex doll. True Colours handles sales.
This year’s edition of the awards, overseen and run by the Cairo-based Arab Cinema Centre (ACC), focussed on Arab-language films that premiered on the festival circuit outside of the Arab world in 2022.
It was voted on by 193 film critics from 72 countries, and the winners will be formally announced at a ceremony during the Cannes Film Festival today (May 20).
Moroccan filmmaker Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan, which led the nominations, won a hat-trick of prizes including best actress for Lubna Azabal, best screenplay for Maryam Touzani-Nabil Ayouch and best cinematography for Virginie Surdej. The film premiered in Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year and was Morocco’s submission for the international feature film Oscar.
Cinematography was a new category introduced this year alongside new prizes for editing and music.
The editing award went to Valentin Féron for Tunisian thriller Ashkal, which also secured Youssef Chebbi the best director prize. The film premiered in Directors’ Fortnight at last year’s Cannes.
Adam Bessa, who was named a Arab Star of Tomorrow by Screen International, won best actor for his role as an impoverished street-seller in Lofty Nathan’s Harka. The film played in Un Certain Regard at Cannes last year, where Bessa jointly won a best performance prize alongside Corsage’s Vicky Krieps.
The best documentary award went to Jumana Manna’s Foragers, in which elderly Palestinians are caught between their right to forage their own land and the harsh restrictions imposed by their occupiers on the basis of preservation. The feature premiered at Visions du Reel.
7th Critics Awards for Arab Films winners
Best Film: Hanging Gardens, dir. Ahmed Yassin Aldaradji (Iraq)
Best Actor: Adam Bessa, Harka (Tun)
Best Actress: Lubna Azabal, The Blue Caftan (Mor)
Best Director: Youssef Chebbi, Ashkal (Tun)
Best Screenplay: Maryam Touzani-Nabil Ayouch, The Blue Caftan (Mor)
Best Documentary: Foragers, Jumana Manna (Pal)
Best Cinematography: Virginie Surdej (Pol), Blue Caftan
Best Editing: Valentin Féron, Ashkal
Best Music: Amin Bouhafa, Under The Fig Trees (Tun)
Achievement Award for Film Critic: Safaa Ellaithy, Olivier Barlet
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